Doctor Who Tardis - More Parts (Part 2)

Well I have more parts for building the Tardis now. Could have enough to finish the build if everything goes to plan. We now have a wall plate with RCA & HDMI. Although the primary use will be RCA it was brought to my attention to "future proof" it and add an HDMI connection now during the initial build. So the plan to attach the new wall plate was at first to cut the top and bottom plastic off and then glue it from the inside. Instead I think I am going to still attach it from the inside but use the 2 screws instead of glue.

So I set about cutting 4 holes in the back of the Tardis using the ole' cordless Dremel. The RCAs came out great and HDMI ended up only slight off but nothing horrible. Only thing left is to find a blue that matches the Tardis so I can paint the screw heads and then screw it in place. Until then though here is the out come so far. I think it will work out nicely.

The next post/part of the build will be finding a way to fit the Raspberry Pi and Hard Drive in the box. I have a few custom parts to hopefully accomplish that. I got some plastic wall hooks I cut the screw end off of and some metal L brackets I tweaked for trying on the Hard Drive. I also got my hands on some plastic stand offs I hope to use to attach the Pi.

Doctor Who Tardis - A Media Center (Part 1)

So I have become very interested in Raspberry Pi's as of late and have a few projects I want to do lined up. The first of which is a media center built into a Doctor Who Tardis for a family member who likes Doctor Who. I personally do not know much about the show other than it has this police box and I assume there is a character named Doctor Who. I started the project off searching for the right sized Tardis box. There was a novelty USB hub but is too small to house the parts needed. I narrowed it down to 2 items. One being a cookie jar and one being an ice tray. What swayed me is that while both of them had removable trays inside the cookie jar had a working light on the top and when closed it makes Tardis sounds. On top of that it was all housed in the lid and could be left on its own.

Here are a few shots of the Tardis with its various features, also here are the dimensions:
W-5.6" x H-10.8" x D-5.6"

Planned Parts
Here are the parts I plan to use for this project. They may change as I go along but here is the initial thought.

• Doctor Who Tardis Cookie Jar (good size with some extras)
• Raspberry Pi Model B (It is a small fan-less all in one board that can handle HD video)
• Xbox 360 IR Media Remote (Has most buttons needed for media player plus may be able to control a TV as well as the media player)
• 4 Port USB Hub with built in power switch and outlet powered. (Powered hub is needed to provide the power needed to run any accessories as the Raspberry Pi is very low powered)
• 1 TB Western Digital Passport USB drive (powers off of USB hub and is small in size)
• 38kHz IR Receiver (Used to allow reception of IR commands from remote controls)
• Head phone to RCA audio cable. (Plan is for use of RCA audio & video to accommodate current TV setup. Probably not needed if using HDMI cable for video & audio)
• Micro USB WiFi adapter (optional but needed for setup because it allows SSH connection to modify code as needed. Can also use the wired Ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi) 
• GPIO cables (For easy connection of IR receiver to Raspberry Pi)
• Wireless USB Keyboard/Touch pad (used for typing and any setup needed)
• 16 GB SD Card (Used as OS drive in Raspberry Pi
• OpenELEC for Raspberry Pi (Provides XBMC media center software and is bare bones to allow for decent boot and running speed)

I will post updates as I progress along. As of this first writing I am working to get the IR receiver working and the Xbox remote working properly as well as setting up the OpenELEC XBMC software. Once that is accomplished the parts can be configured in the Tardis. Thoughts on that is Pi towards the bottom mounted so it doesn't move with the hard drive towards the top for removal to modify files via desktop PC. (Another choice based on current setup. If network connected files and be FTP on and off.)

Feel free to leave comments/questions and I will try to respond to any I can if I know the answer.

Flirc Media Remote

So in an effort to find a way to run XBMC on my NES Media PC box, without a keyboard and mouse. I came across Flirc. It's not an actual remote but a USB IR receiver device. The device is about the size of a thumb and is pretty easy to setup. I had a little trouble setting it up in Linux but since you can set it up on any PC I set it up on my Windows 7 PC. Then just plug it into the Linux box and it was good to go as the programming is on the chip and not the PC.

It has a custom menu that has some basic presets you can use or go as in depth with as many keys as you want to program. It works like a Harmony remote. You tell the program you want to program key X then press the key on the remote you want to perform X. I used an old Tivo remote for my setup as it has enough buttons to perform the basics in XBMC but also has a few extras. I also like the button layout on it.

Overall I would rate this little device pretty good. Allows you options in picking any IR remote. Allows you to customize the buttons the way you want and seems to have good range for operation. I do believe you want to have the device pointing out to the remote user. If your interested check out their website. http://www.flirc.tv/ 

NES Computer (The Optical Drive)

Well putting an optical drive inside of the NES has kind of become a side project all it's own because it is not really "necessary" to run the box but does make for a nice addition. I guess to get started I will list what I used not only the drive but the parts as well.

• LG (CT21N) Slim Blu-Ray 

• I chose this drive for a couple of reasons. One is that it is slim and that is required because there is just simply not enough room for a full sized drive. Also I found the price at the time of purchase to be OK. I was thinking about going with a burner but at this time they are double the price and that function is not the most important. 
• JB Weld

• This stuff is great but be careful when using it is very sticky and has a strong odor.

• Metal H brackets
• Not sure that these are really brackets but they were very handy left over parts from earlier work. I picked these up at my local hardware store with plans to try to use them to mount the hard drive but never used them. 

• Dremel Tool
• Thought I was done with this guy but still needed it just a little. 

So to start I used the dremel tool to cut out a post and small notch behind the front door because the drive is slightly wider than the opening for cartridges is. An ideal mount would have been 2 smaller notches but with the location of my hard drive this was not a viable option. So staying to just one side I went ahead and cut out a notch to just fit the size of the drive.

 

Once you I had the notch cut into the case the next obstacle was to find a way to mount the rear of the drive to the roof. Reasons for this is to keep it from flopping around and to keep it off of the CPU heat sink as much as possible, but to keep it removable for any kind of maintenance, upgrade, ect... To solve this issue looking at my pile of odds and ends gave me an idea. I had these H shaped brackets that looked and after checking almost hugged the drive like a glove. So the idea that I came up with was to use them as guides/holders for the rear of the drive. To attach them to the case I used JB Weld and after letting that dry slide the drive in to a fit that I liked. Right now the drive is attached "screwless" but I would like to come up with some kind of pin or a screw to just make sure the drive goes no where. Right now it can be pulled out the front but doesn't wiggle around or move when in use which of course is a good thing. 

 Once you get the mounting right you can work on hooking the drive up to the rest of the PC. First thing you will need is a connection converter for the slim drive so you can hook your cables up to it. I scored one off of Newegg but you can get them off Amazon or where ever else for under $15. Below is the one I picked a simple one piece solid. You can get them in different styles.

The converter simply plugs into the back of the drive and then allows you to hook up your SATA power and data cables. For the SATA data cable I had one from another PC that had an L bracket on one end. This was nice because it allowed me to bend the cable down away from the drive sooner and easier than if it was a straight cable.

The last part is to get everything connected and jammed back into the case. This is becoming a more difficult task as I add on but so far so good. With some fancy tucking I was able to get everything back together and so far it seems that my temps are still holding steady. This is an important matter because with the blu-ray drive in now there is very little clearance between the CPU heat sink and the drive. I have come across one hiccup though and that is Linux does not play well with blu-ray disc playback. Although from what I have read Windows isn't much better yet. The drive is recognized and runs fine but right now it is easier to rip your disc and play the file than it is to try and play it directly from the disc. Best solution so far is you play a stream created by another program, but the playback I am getting from that is not optimal. It also requires me to be in Linux instead of XBMC. (If anyone has good tips please post in the comments.)

Next step is to incorporate an idea I have seen on the net and build a false front on the blu-ray drive to make it look like an NES cartridge is loaded and not a computer drive. I have chosen this game as the face as I like football and loved the game when it came out. How I plan to do this I have not figured out yet but the next post will hopefully have the results I come up with.